REPUTATION Management With Strategic SEO
Did you know that 87% of people pick a local business based on reviews? In order to ensure people are finding you, you should be paying close attention and managing your reputation by local search, SEO and listings.
So, how do you dominate local SEO and reviews? Here are some simple steps to follow.
Keywords
The concept of local SEO is all about making it easier for customers in your area to find you. Seems simple enough… someone punches in “coffee shops near me” and boom, your business pulls up showing the prospect contact information, location and hours.
The keywords are related to your business service/product and the location, so it is fairly easy to figure out what keywords will serve your local SEO strategy the most. Simply start with your service location and start listing everything you do and what your prospective customers’ pain points are that you address.
Listings
One of the most important, often overlooked, strategies you can implement to get better results online is local listings. Local listings like Google, Bing, Yahoo and Apple Maps have programs for business owners to register their business listings. These listings must be optimized and consistent over each platform as inconsistencies can hinder your search engine optimization.
For businesses that are brick and mortar, it is particularly important for you to have consistency over the platforms. It is vital that any business keep up on the listing, updating addresses, contact information and hours regularly.
Listing optimization is one of the simplest, most powerful ways to rank better in search results and showcase your brand equity through reviews from real people in real-time.
To find out how Kinetic can help you manage your listings click here.
Website SEO
SEO is in itself a technique to optimize pages so they rank better on search engines. Some good tactics are:
- Include the full keyword in the URL
- Feature the keyword in the title tag
- Keep keywords short and concise
- Use the keyword in the meta description
When we talk about local searches there are a few things you can do to your current website in order to rank higher on searches from a local standpoint. You can start by making a local landing page and make the URL the local area. For example:
- com/Billings
- com/Bozeman
While creating local landing pages is a great way to increase your visibility, it is not recommended to inundate your website with local pages if you serve a national or global audience. It can actually hurt your ranking so use discretion with deciding on local landing pages.
Local Link Building
Every town or city has a lot of resources online that can help you build your local backlinks. Chamber of Commerce, downtown alliances, community events and so on all usually have a partner page.
It may be a digital initiative but it is offline activation that you need in order to drive your SEO strategy in this aspect. Network with other companies and get involved in your community to get your site listed as a partner and contributor.
You can also create a post with the top upcoming events your business is hosting or participating in. Promote your content on your social media channels to get the word out.
Local news outlets and industry blogs are also great sources. Do some good public relations editorial outreach and get your business noticed.
Online Reviews
A key part of your online reputation is online reviews. Boosting your local listing with being responsive to online reviews is extremely important. The unfortunate reality is that some reviews will not be glowing, and you must show grace and empathy for everyone who has reviewed your company. Not only will people see the reviews they will see how you have handled those reviews as well. So, don’t run the risk of alienating potential customers.
There are reputation management services that are offered. With Kinetic Reputation Management, you get access to the tools and expertise to manage all of your local listings and reviews from one convenient location. No need to login to 40 different websites and endlessly call, text and email customers chasing down reviews. In fact, Kinetic can manage the entire process so that you can focus on creating a great experience for your customers, not managing your online listings.
With Kinetic Reputation Management you get:
- Your company profile optimized for search across 40+ platforms
- Better placement in search results
- A review management system that pushes great reviews where you want them and negative reviews back to you
- Manage your local listings and reviews from one simple dashboard, or have Kinetic manage them for you
- Consistently build your local search ranking every month for less than most of us pay for our daily coffee
- Spend your time running your business, less time keeping up with digital profiles
To learn more about how we can help with your local SEO and listing/review management contact us today.
